Gingerbread Play Dough

Both my children began their Christmas break on Dec 23 and all joking aside, about 2 hours after they awoke my son made the official announcement..."I'M BORED!!! THERE IS NOTHING TO DO."  Seriously, you have been awake for 2 hours on your first day of Christmas break and this is how we start off? Oh boy!  In my madness and desperation to finish up my own baking to share with family and friends in the following weeks I had to think fast...what could we do?   So, I resorted to a never fail staple in my house (...for me): May I (re)introduce Callye (yes, again...)  from The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle and her WONDERFUL festive spin on an old necessity for parents of small children - PLAY DOUGH... but not your everyday playdough, G-I-N-G-E-R-B-R-E-A-D scented.  Note how I said scented, NOT flavoured, yup...still tastes gross, so don't let your little kiddies eat it... {or the dog}.

I too was sceptical at first,  my past attempts at making a scented playdough have always failed (you know your ditch effort to make grape playdough that turns out grey and sticky because you used the regular powdered crystals, not the sugar free {LIKE THAT WORKS!} and so the lovely little microbes begin growing turning what seemed like a good idea at the time into a ooey-gooey- grosstastic play session into a need for severe laundering of clothes AND children because the little brother got mad at the big sister and smooshed globs of dough into her hair...)  or maybe that's just my household.

Back to the concept of the day, Callye`s reinvented gingerbread playdough is a nice change to the old tradition, especially right around Christmas.  My children got involved and helped me from preparation to cooking and then playing with what actually resembles a kid friendly version of cookie dough.  They hauled out a whack of seasonal cutters, rollers and play dough accessories and were baking up a culinary extravaganza in no time flat.

You can enjoy Callye's recipe too, just follow her easy recipe below.  We measured all our ingredients into our saucepan right off the bat to reduce dishes {'cause we all know who will have had to wash them, sound familar?}

Ingredients you will need:

• 1 cup of all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup of iodized table salt
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp cream of tartar
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 cup of water
• 1 tsp orange extract (optional)

Easy peasy instructions:

Whisk together all dry ingredients in a medium size saucepan. Then stir in the water oil and orange extract to resemble a thick gooey dough.  Cook your dough stirring regularly over medium-low heat until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the pot.  The color will change to slightly darker brown.  Turn out onto parchment paper and knead it until smooth.   Store your cooled dough in an airtight container or ziplock bag when not being used to avoid drying out.

Yields about 2 cups of play dough.

Enjoy!